The intent of working to keep track of this is for a few reasons, in part because this is a tracking year!

A) General overview of costs of the hens vs the return impute on the eggs, (I am unsure how to factor in manure for gardens etc)

B) its linked directly to my plans to do very detailed grow out costs of chicks, both home hatched and hatchery bought. I am going to also talk about tricks for lowering the food cost bill.

So stats you need to start out with..

We have 13 chickcns, 11 hens and 2 roosters, the youngest hen is three this year, the oldest hen is eight.. All hens moulted this fall and are in good feather at this time. Its a mixed breed flock, sll are medium to large to X-large egg layers, the colors range from pale green to dark brown, all shades of browns inbetween

Given my girls age, the chicken books tell me that I can with the bigger breeds expect on average 4 eggs per hen per week..

So my max production for the month could have been.. 132

Which means in the cold and dark my girls only produced at 48 percent of their possible production.

Jan- Lean month indeed.. Bitter cold, stubborn me, who did not want to turn on the heat lamps until it below 20 which did not happen until the second week of jan but finally did and the production went up but so will the power bill.

Eggs, 64 chicken eggs

equals: 5.3 dozen.

Store, local large brown eggs 3.29 per dozen = 16.45

Local price per my readers- 6 dollars a dozen=32

* ok, having heard from local city to me, local to province and across Canada, it would appear our local battery produced eggs at the first town from me is cheap, cheap, everyone in comments on log or facebook appear to agree, that it should 6 dollars a dozen.. so be it!

Now lets talk about feed shall we..

The books say, that my hens need to eat 1.5 pounds of feed per week, (and I will assume my boys eat the same amount) so

But if you had to buy that same feed at the feed store price.. it would be 36 cents per pound, for a total of 28.08

Now because its winter, I also need to be putting down bedding regular at a full straw square bale per week, for a total of four bales.

Each bale cost 3 dollars for a total of 12 dollars in bedding.. Opps, there went my profit or even my break even.. (wink)

So the overview..

Output

Eggs produced – 64 eggs -Store Value -16.45

New Value = 32

Input

Feed- 10.14 cents

Bedding- 12

Jan – on the good side 9.86

* I am not going to include impute costs of structures etc, they came with the farm and have been around for years, but if you are a first time chicken owner, you will need to also figure out the basics on what it will cost you to build a chicken coop, pen and so forth.

thanks for sharing your thoughts on price as well, I have modified it in the post and will use the updated figure for the rest of the year.. Given that your hens are so young yet, It is surprising but they are unlighted and unheated and they are a dark feathered breed of hen, all three are noted to really slow down the egg laying..

Oh, because I want a bigger flock than this. If all 21 hens were producing, that would be enough eggs for our use and sell a few. Remember with three children and two eating, breakfast can use a dozen eggs. (Not that we eat eggs every day, but eggs-in-the-basket and french toast are the children’s favourites.)

And remember, several of the hens were hatched right as the weather was turning cool, so they’re still very young.

I’m not sure if we’ll aim for the 200 we’re allowed, but I certainly want more than 21.

interesting, I look forward to seeing how it goes and what you find works best for you in terms of both breeding and winter numbers 🙂 I hear you on the young, planning on ordering very early this spring so they will just be coming in lay in fall

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